Holiday Cook Today


 
LMichaels

LMichaels

TVWBB 2-Star Olympian
So holilday cook today for kids and grandkids. Slab of beef back ribs, 2 slabs of St Louis ribs. Went on the Z upper rack about 930. Had them on "super smoke" for about an hour, then up to 225 until the probes hit 160ish. Then off everything came. Wrapped. No liquids or extra fats i.e. butter or such. Just the meat. The beef ribs had a slightly more savory rub (mostly a S,P and G base), the pork had a rub tending more to pork basically a slightly sweeter rub typical of pork. So nothing else was added to the packs. Dropped the grill down to 190 and let everything ride until kids got here, dropped it down to "keep warm" setting, for an hour, pulled the packs and let them rest wrapped another hour.
All the ribs were "kiss off the bone" but not "fall off". There was "bite". But they were all outstanding. Honestly best I have ever done. Good smoke on the bones as well. Using the pellets from Costco. Again, the magic these things work is nothing short of amazing. I have done similar work with my gas grills and had good results but, not like this. Just amazing. So sorry I did not think to do photos. We had the little ones all day, and between them and the cook along with trying to get garden work done, and the fact my left ankle is vey painful and swollen. Just a bit overwhelmed
 
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LMichaels said:
I have done similar work with my gas grills and had good results but, not like this. Just amazing
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Question, have you not been using charcoal and wood over the years?

Sure, pellet pooper over gas, every day. But pellet pooper over charcoal and real wood? I seriously question that.

Not trying to start an argument. I’ve had pooper ribs and ribs over charcoal and wood and IMO, the difference between both is substantial with charcoal and wood far surpassing poopers each time I’ve tried them.
 
Brett-EDH said:
Question, have you not been using charcoal and wood over the years?

Sure, pellet pooper over gas, every day. But pellet pooper over charcoal and real wood? I seriously question that.

Not trying to start an argument. I’ve had pooper ribs and ribs over charcoal and wood and IMO, the difference between both is substantial with charcoal and wood far surpassing poopers each time I’ve tried them.
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Couple things here. I only have an 18" Jumbo Joe. I have a wooden deck. So I have no desire to run "live fire" on the deck at all. Yeah I could do it in the yard but that would entail constant running up and down stairs and you all know by now I am like a Calamity Jane. Hence my bad knee, swollen ankle, wrecked painful hip. I did all that damage not even on the stairs! I'm just at a stage of my life, I don't care for keeping firewood around and dealing with working a live fire. I have no doubt I could learn to use those tools and turn out great Q. 25 years ago....................hell even only 15 years ago I might have taken that up. But back then I truly believed "heat was heat". So, is it Pellet over live fire? Not a fair question because I don't even want to go there. But, I also have to say, if you have not tried one you might be VERY surprised at what they can accomplish. I know I was.
 
LMichaels said:
Couple things here. I only have an 18" Jumbo Joe. I have a wooden deck. So I have no desire to run "live fire" on the deck at all. Yeah I could do it in the yard but that would entail constant running up and down stairs and you all know by now I am like a Calamity Jane. Hence my bad knee, swollen ankle, wrecked painful hip. I did all that damage not even on the stairs! I'm just at a stage of my life, I don't care for keeping firewood around and dealing with working a live fire. I have no doubt I could learn to use those tools and turn out great Q. 25 years ago....................hell even only 15 years ago I might have taken that up. But back then I truly believed "heat was heat". So, is it Pellet over live fire? Not a fair question because I don't even want to go there. But, I also have to say, if you have not tried one you might be VERY surprised at what they can accomplish. I know I was.
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Makes sense. I’ve had food off of poopers for a while. For me, getting back to charcoal was a goal and it’s been a blessing. I know a lot of people who love their poopers. It makes sense to me. Poopers deliver more “bbq” and smoke flavor than a gasser ever will. And poopers enable many basic cooks to turn out a decent product. And that’s the goal. To have good food with little to low effort. And poopers deliver on that near 100%.

I have no axe to grind. Poopers will be the main bbqs sold in just a couple of years. But charcoal will always have a place too.

Keep your cooks coming. I enjoy your cooks and posts.
 
I'd love to see a blind cookoff with some kind of live fire appliance vs a pellet grill both worked by someone who really knows their craft on the type of grill. In any case, I cannot comment on one being better over the other. But, I can say there is a Q place up in Waukegan IL called Big Ed's. https://bigedsllc.com/ He runs a pit like no one I have ever seen. His Q is basically Nirvana and he is a terrific guy.
Anyway his is the yardstick I hold my Q to. The ribs I turned out tonight I am sure Ed would like.
Then there is a guy here in Belvidere. Runs an outdoor Q place. He charges an arm and a leg, has wonderful equipment and from the smell you would think it's Q heaven. Sadly it's not even "OK" especially compared to Big Ed's, Mission BBQ or even Famous Dave's. Not sure what the full point is here. Just tired ramblings LOL
 
LMichaels said:
Couple things here. I only have an 18" Jumbo Joe. I have a wooden deck. So I have no desire to run "live fire" on the deck at all. Yeah I could do it in the yard but that would entail constant running up and down stairs and you all know by now I am like a Calamity Jane. Hence my bad knee, swollen ankle, wrecked painful hip. I did all that damage not even on the stairs! I'm just at a stage of my life, I don't care for keeping firewood around and dealing with working a live fire. I have no doubt I could learn to use those tools and turn out great Q. 25 years ago....................hell even only 15 years ago I might have taken that up. But back then I truly believed "heat was heat". So, is it Pellet over live fire? Not a fair question because I don't even want to go there. But, I also have to say, if you have not tried one you might be VERY surprised at what they can accomplish. I know I was.
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Regarding your Pellet Grill: How have you handled the situation(s) "when the lights go out" and your only half-way into your grilling session? This is a common situation here in Costa Rica especially now that we are into the rainy and lighting season.
 
Richard Garcia said:
Regarding your Pellet Grill: How have you handled the situation(s) "when the lights go out" and your only half-way into your grilling session? This is a common situation here in Costa Rica especially now that we are into the rainy and lighting season.
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There are always going to be a few people, living with special circumstances. But I would hope, with you living in Costa Rica, you have already come up with a solution. Same would hold true for anyone cooking with an electric oven and the power goes out. The Smokefire does not use near as much power as an electric oven. So easier fixes.
Living on the Gulf Coast we are prone to a fair amount of electrical power issues.
I have an EGO electric back up box for small, short term issues. Honda Eu2200i for issues lasting many hours and a larger unit if things go into several days. These we’re all in play long before my Smokefire arrived.
But if you live in a beautiful area like Costa Rica, with regular power issues, and don’t have a workaround, I would stick with a charcoal cooker and just enjoy the view.
 
Honestly I can count on less than one hand the number of power failures in just over 30 years living here. If we did have that I would simply run everything through a small UPS. They only draw like 200 watts max
 
Darian Hofer said:
But if you live in a beautiful area like Costa Rica, with regular power issues, and don’t have a workaround, I would stick with a charcoal cooker and just enjoy the view.
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Totally agree and My Four(4) charcoal cookers I will make do until I can’t lift a charcoal bag which may be sooner-than-later;)
 

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LMichaels said:
Honestly I can count on less than one hand the number of power failures in just over 30 years living here. If we did have that I would simply run everything through a small UPS. They only draw like 200 watts max
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When I had my PitBoss the power to get it started was a lot higher than the power to keep it running. There was a mod to add a switch to disable the ignitor which allowed the pellets to be lit in the firebowl with a torch, and then the power to run the fan and electronics was really low draw.

edit: reminded me of this link from when I used to have a pellet smoker.

pelletgrillreviews.com

Portable Power Options for Pellet Grills [2021 Update]

We detail solutions for powering portable pellet grills for tailgating and camping. We look at batteries, solar charging, and power needs for pellet grills.
pelletgrillreviews.com pelletgrillreviews.com
 
I had a Traeger for about 7 years or so....it was my move from propane but still used the propane for good high heat cooks.......
Picked up the 14" kettle ( I actually won it ) and made about 5 cooks with zero experience, just used my propane knowledge.
Less than a week after I had a few meals on it I owned a new performer......less than a year after that I picked up my E6.
It has been the best transition I could think of........
Gave my propane away to a buddy, sold the Traeger for a good price to someone I knew and just have nothing but charcoal cookers now.
Couldn't be happier....it's more work...but is it really work?
Nothing can stop the food from cooking, electricity...weather ect......and it's the best tasting food I think you can make.
Also Brett keeps me from falling off my pedestal, watching his cooking keeps me trying harder all the the time.......I have already written out my next rib performance after having a quick chat with my buddies Malcom reed and his buddy Heath.
 
If I didn't have to worry about my grills being on a wooden deck but a concrete patio instead I might view it all differently. But, right now I am lovin' the "pellet life". Will keep my Wolf and my Q320. Meantime I still have the Jumbo Joe but I only use that in the yard on concrete blocks so I don't burn the yard. Once I used it when we had a dry spell and damn near burned up the entire yard. So, I tend to stay with "safer and easier".
 
Well, I'll pop in here for a second. I have all three, two Gassers both Weber's, two charcoal grills both Weber's and a Camp Chef pellet grill.
If you fire up the CC and just set a temp you will more than likely get a mild smokeless cook depending on the pellets used. Just like charcoal if using charcoal alone without wood the comparison to the CC and performer would be pretty difficult to tell apart.
If you use the smoke settings on the CC to enhance the smoke flavor than yes, I think it will be as good as any charcoal grill can do.
Everybody thinks pellet grills are set and forget, but there are many options to adjust the cook in many different directions it all depends on how you play it.
I'm still learning, but what I've learned so far is that there is a lot of options on a pellet grill that will really change the profile of the cook.
Gassers are for quick cooks and those items such as veggies that you really don't want a lot of flavor enhancement.

As far as power failure, very rare here but with $1K or more in my freezers I have a 4500 watt generator that will handle both freezers and the garage refrigerator. That could also run the CC. Its propane powered runs off 20# tanks ...go figure or gas. I now have 5 full tanks dedicated to the generator. So, no worries there and no gas to store.
 
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